Columbia Gas Transmission in Planning Phase to Replace Pipeline Section in Pennsylvania

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Columbia Gas Transmission Corporation (Fairfax, Virginia), a subsidiary of NiSource (NYSE:NI) (Merrillville, Indiana) is planning to replace 54-miles of natural gas transmission pipeline on its Line-1278 in Northern Pennsylvania. The pipeline will be replaced in phases over a four-year period and will consist of 43-miles of 20" and 11-miles of 14" diameter pipeline. The construction work will take place between the Easton (Plant 1039130) and Milford (Plant 1039263) compressor stations and is expected to begin in late 2004, depending on some yet to be decided issues with the FERC.

General contractor selection is expected to take place in June of 2004 for the first segment. Columbia currently plans on replacing 15-miles of 20" in 2004, 23-miles of 20" in 2005, and will split the balance of the 11-miles of 14" pipeline in 2006 & 2007. Columbia has not disclosed a total cost of the replacement project, but the cost could range from $60-90 million.

Columbia Gas Transmission Corporation delivers over 1.3 Tcf per year of natural gas to local distribution and end users in eleven states with peak daily delivery of over 7.2 Bcf. Columbia transmission facilities encompass 12,750-miles of pipeline and 130 compressor stations supported by over 600,000 horsepower of compression operated between 400 and 1,000 psig. Columbia has a total storage capacity of 600 Bcf of natural gas spread among 40 storage locations in the Northeast.